489. "And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months." This symbolically means that the church has dispelled every truth of the Word to the point that none remains.

The holy city means the Holy Jerusalem, and the Holy Jerusalem means the New Church which possesses doctrinal truths, as holiness is predicated of Divine truth (no. 173). A city, moreover, symbolizes doctrine (no. 194). Consequently to tread that city underfoot means, symbolically, to dispel its doctrinal truths. Forty-two months mean, symbolically, to the end when nothing remains.

Doctrinal truths mean truths from the Word, because that is the source of the church's doctrine and every particular of it.

People concerned with the internal elements of the church today have thus dispelled the Word's truths and the church's doctrine from it. All of this is described in the present chapter by the beast ascending from the bottomless pit, which killed the two witnesses (verse 7); and it may also be seen from the accounts from the spiritual world appended to each chapter.

[2] Forty-two months mean, symbolically, to the end when nothing of the church's truth and goodness remains, because the number forty-two has the same symbolic meaning as six weeks, inasmuch as forty-two is the product of six multiplied by seven, and six weeks symbolizes a period complete to the end. For that is the symbolic meaning of the number six, and a week symbolizes a state, and the seventh week a holy state, which is the new state of the church when the Lord begins His reign.

The number forty-two has the same symbolic meaning in the following verse:

(The beast rising up out of the sea) was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and it was given the power to do this for forty-two months. (Revelation 13:5, no. 583)

The number six symbolizes a period complete to the end because that is the symbolic meaning of the number three, six being that number doubled; and doubled or not, in the case of numbers the symbolism is the same.

Furthermore, this number has the same symbolic meaning as the number three and a half, because forty-two months is equivalent to three and a half years.

The period is expressed in terms of months because a month symbolizes a complete state, as in Isaiah 66:23, Revelation 22:1-2, Genesis 29:14, Numbers 11:18-20, Deuteronomy 21:11, 13.

491. "And they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days." This symbolically means that these two - an acknowledgment of the Lord and a life in accordance with the Ten Commandments, which are the two essential elements of the New Church - must be taught until the end and a new beginning.

That these two, an acknowledgment of the Lord and a life in accordance with the Ten Commandments, are the two essential elements of the New Church, and are meant by the two witnesses, may be seen just above in no. 490. And that to prophesy means, symbolically, to teach, in nos. 8, 133.

One thousand two hundred and sixty days means, symbolically, until the end and a new beginning, that is, until the end of the previous church and thus the beginning of a new one. This is the symbolic meaning of the number because the number has the same symbolic meaning as three and a half; for when expressed in terms of years, 1260 days is equivalent to three and a half years, ¹ and three and a half symbolizes an end and a beginning (no. 505).

This same number has the same symbolic meaning in the next chapter:

Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days. (Revelation 12:6)

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